Nick Thomas angered the Rotary Gods a long time ago and has been trying to appease them with a stunning collection ever since.

At 51 years old, Nick Thomas is not the man you’d expect to see behind the wheel of the three rotary beasts you see here. Throw in his proper British accent and high-power executive demeanor, and any cop pulling this car over is in for a bit of a surprise when the tinted windows roll down. But there’s a reason for this. Thomas is the modern-day Sisyphus, smitten by the rotary gods and damned to collect and restore rotaries for all eternity.

This automotive version of a Greek tragedy started more than 30 years ago, when Mazda and the Wankel rotary engine they’ve adopted were still an automotive oddity like today’s fuel cell power vehicles. Back in 1975, Thomas, at the time an apprentice engineer, purchased his first car. At the age of 18, he was much like us, desperate for motoring freedom and dreaming of a fast car, but he was completely poor. So like any good gearhead lad, he decided on a used ’72 Mazda RX-3, which in those days already had a reputation as a sports coupe and was one of the first mass-production sports cars to use the rotary engine. For a modest 650 quid (approximately $1,000), Thomas now had a set of wheels.

There was one minor problem, though. Even with just three years of life, this RX-3’s early generation rotary engine was already blown. Despite his best efforts, Thomas just wasn’t able to drum up the funding to rebuild or replace the exotic Japanese engine. His tragic downfall came when he opted to install a 1600cc, four-cylinder, pushrod, Ford cross-flow engine out of an early ford Cortina into his Mazda. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was better than having a hunk of steel on four wheels for driveway decoration. Had he known then the price of this folly, Thomas might not have gone forward with this act of sacrilege.

But the rotary gods stayed their hand and bided their time to properly punish Thomas. For 30 years, he thought his act had gone unnoticed by the fates. And in those three decades, he went about building a multi-national aerospace service empire. It was in 2005, shortly after Thomas finally immigrated to the U.S. to run the American branch of his empire, that rotary karma came knocking.

America’s vast network of open roads, storage space, rust-free cars and gasoline heritage reignited Thomas’ passion for the rotary, and it was then that the rotary gods finally demanded punishment. Whether an act in search of redemption or a punishment from above, Thomas began his mad cycle of collection and restoration of everything that is rotary.

Today his collection consists of 16 Mazdas, all powered by the Wankel rotary. From several RX-3s, the car that started this madness; to the coveted third-generation RX-7 FD; to a super-rare three-rotor, twin-turbo JDM Mazda Cosmo; Thomas continues to acquire these cars from all over the world and stuff as many rotors as will fit underneath the hood.

Thomas brought out three of his current cars to meet us. Not trying to seem vintage, he left his RX-3s and -4s at home and brought out two FDs and an FC to appeal to our younger tastes. But these aren’t just cars sporting fancy paint and body work. As a sign of his devotion to Felix Wankel’s rotary invention, Thomas has thrown out the original two-rotor 13B turbo engines in the white FC and black FD in favor of the twin sequential turbocharged, three-rotor 20B engines as the foundation of his modifications.

One of the favorites of his collection is this ’88 10th Anniversary Edition Turbo II, one of only 1,500 made. The original 13B was removed for a custom-built, three-rotor 20B engine (using parts from a third-gen RX-7) assembled by Pineapple Racing. The housings were given a street port and assembled with cryo-treated rotors that were matched, balanced and tipped with two-piece 3mm Hurley seals. In order to mount the monstrous GT42R turbo, which can easily move 500 hp worth of air, custom manifolds and plumbing had to be fabricated from intake to the exhaust. Much of the remaining ancillary hardware was sourced new from the Japanese Mazda Cosmo (which came with a twin sequential turbo, three-rotor engine) parts bin. Knowing the inherent weaknesses of a fire-breathing rotary engine, Thomas went the extra mile and addressed heat and cooling issues with a NASCAR-type racing radiator, two oil coolers and a ceramic-coated, ever-hot component. Putting out 518 whp, Thomas himself will admit this FC is a laggy beast to drive, but the car has held up on the streets and provided nonstop rotary insanity whenever he’s in the mood.

But no one’s ever happy with just one three-rotor car. And with the looks, finesse and refinements that come with the third-generation FD RX-7, Thomas knew he had to have one to match the FC. To save much of the build headache, his Black Banzai FD was sourced from good friend and renowned three-rotor nut, Cameron Worth, owner of Pettit Racing in West Palm Beach, Florida. Instead of another big single-turbo insanity like the FC, Thomas wanted a three-rotor with response and opted for a 20B powerplant lifted directly from a Cosmo. Even with three rotors, the 20B’s sequential turbo system and complex plumbing is still plagued with issues, so much of the vacuum plumbing, lines, valves and diaphragms were removed and simplified with Pettit Racing’s non-sequential, twin-turbo update. This combined with just a few simple bolt-ons like a GReddy front-mount intercooler, MagnaFlow titanium exhaust and a well-tuned Link ECU and this small-turbo FD puts down 550 whp, 32 more than the white big-turbo beast.

Finishing off this street car are simple but proven parts like TEIN coilovers and Trak antiroll bars. The big problem with this much power in a two-wheel-drive car is getting the power down. To do so, Thomas had the rear fenders modified and stretched in custom metal work using the original sheetmetal. This gave him enough space to finally stuff the 315mm-width Yokohama A048 race tires on the back to get this car to hook up.

Thomas’ yellow FD is the pretty girl of the trio. While mundane under the hood compared to the Black Banzai FD and the White FC, it’s just at its infancy as far as the build is concerned. It still uses the original 13B twin-turbo engine, but already has the cosmetic department sorted with an Erebuni widebody kit and 19-inch Effects wheels. For now, only a GReddy front-mount intercooler kit, RP exhaust, K&N intake and MSD ignition module grace the engine bay. But knowing Thomas, this is just a starting point for bigger turbo(s) or even another rotor.

Thomas won’t say when enough is enough and plans to continue to collect and restore as many of these machines as possible for the foreseeable future, hoping that one day the rotary gods might finally be appeased. We think the gods won’t be appeased until there’s a four-rotor under one of these hoods.

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